Lessons from the Doctrine and Covenants 2021
Lesson No. Seventeen
The Law of Consecration Today - D&C 42
The history of consecration and stewardship – Whenever the Lord has had a people who would accept and live the gospel He has established the law of consecration. Examples are the people of Enoch (Moses 7:17-18); the people of Melchizedek (JST Genesis 12:27); in New Testament times (Acts 4:32); the Book of Mormon people (3 Nephi 26:19, 4 Nephi 1:3); in our dispensation, through the Prophet Joseph Smith, in February 1831, less than a year after the Church was organized (D&C 42:2).
The fundamentals of consecration and stewardship – “The basic principle and the justification for the law of consecration is that everything we have belongs to the Lord; therefore, the Lord may call upon us for any and all of the property which we have, because it belongs to Him” (Marion G. Romney, Ensign, February 1979). Tithing is a part of the law of consecration. Stewardship is an extension of the law of consecration. As stewards we are accountable to the Lord for the property He has entrusted to us. We are to “stand independent of all other creatures beneath the celestial world” (D&C 78:14). Elder Bruce R. McConkie explained: “Relying always on the Lord, we must become independent of the world. We must be self-reliant. Using the agency God has given us, we must work out our own economic and temporal problems” (Conference Report, April 1979).
Consecration is a celestial law and requires unity – Early attempts to build Zion in this dispensation failed because the Saints were “not united according to the union required by the law of the celestial kingdom; and Zion cannot be built up unless it is by the principles of the law of the celestial kingdom” D&C 105:4-5. The Lord further explained: “If ye are not one ye are not mine” (D&C 38:27). Consecration and the establishment of Zion in preparation for the Second Coming all require that the Lord’s people be of “one heart and…one mind” (D&C 45:65).
“Sacrifice and consecration are inseparably intertwined. The law of consecration is that we consecrate our time, our talents, and our money and property to the cause of the Church ; such are to be available to the extent they are needed to further the Lord’s interests on the earth. The law of sacrifice is that we are willing to sacrifice all that we have for the truth’s sake…even our very lives if need be….We are not always called upon to live the whole law of consecration and give all of our time, talents, and means to the building up of the Lord’s earthly kingdom. Few of us are called on to sacrifice much of what we possess….But to gain celestial salvation we must be able to live these laws to the full if we are called upon to do so” (Bruce R. McConkie, Conference Report, April 1979).
Living the law of consecration today – “The law of tithing gives us a great opportunity to implement the principles of consecration and stewardship….It is thus apparent that when the principles of tithing and the fast are properly observed and the welfare plan gets fully developed and wholly into operation we shall not be so very far from caring out the great fundamentals of the United Order” (Marion G. Romney, Conference Report, April 1977). (The United Order was the covenant organization the Lord established to administer the law of consecration and stewardship to some early members of the Church) President Henry B. Eyring has expanded our understanding of how we live the law of consecration today: "His way of helping has at times been called living the law of consecration. In another period His way was called the united order. In our time it is called the Church welfare program" (Ensign, May 2011).
Testimony – Recognition of the Lord as the rightful owner of all things is the standard by which we should govern our temporal concerns. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches the laws of consecration, sacrifice, and stewardship, and the only limitation on us living these laws and receiving the attendant blessings is within ourselves.